Unforseen Rescue
by UchihaCherryBlossoms
Summary: Sakura returns home after a solo mission only to hear that Naruto and Sasuke were injured on a mission of their own and that Sasuke had refused all medical treatment.  Can his medic-nin team mate make it in time to save him?


Author's Note

Wooooo! Finally a new story! After running into so many problems with Penalties and racking my brain for any way of finishing it, I decided that I would try and get some of my other stories finished and posted for everyone to read. So, here is the first of a couple of one shots that I have in the works. There is another that I should be able to finish up by next weekend but it depends on how stressed out I am from work. Enjoy!

Unforseen Rescue

Rating: T (blood, medical procedures, and some hotness at the end, but nothing too bad)

Summary: Sakura returns home after a solo mission only to hear that Naruto and Sasuke were injured on a mission of their own and that Sasuke had refused all medical treatment. Can his medic-nin team mate make it in time to save him?

o.o.o

The branches all but flew past her skilled hands and feet as she soared through the trees towards the main village gates. She had travelled this path so many times before that she didn't even have to think about where she was going to place her hands next, where the next push from her feet was coming from, and she was free to think about the success of her latest mission. Tsunade had sent her out on her own this time, on an infiltration and information gathering mission to the land of waves. Because she had to insinuate herself into the locals, she had been gone for almost a month, but it had been worth it. She was able to gather information on the latest group of nomads who had taken to attacking the small villages in fire country and the surrounding lands. With the information she now had, the village could send out a couple of cells to dispose of many of their hiding places and hopefully put an end to the sporadic attacks.

However, she was in a rush to get home. Before she had left, her two team mates had been sent out as well, this time in a frontal attempt to stop the same nomads. They were to try and track them back to their lair from the latest village to be victimized by them and begin an attack if they found anything. The latest she had heard about them was that they had indeed found a small group of the nomads roaming around searching for their next target and that they had managed to eliminate them, but had needed a rescue from a back up cell. Hopefully they had not been injured too badly but due to being undercover she was unable to send a message back to Konoha to see just what had happened.

So, she was very relieved to see the wooden gates appear out of the trees ahead of her and the ever present guards look up at the sound of her approach. Flinging herself off of the last tree with a mid-air twist, she lands in front of the guards on the balls of her feet and brushes her hair out of her face so she can look them in the eyes.

"Ohayo Sakura-sama." The left hand guard greets her, looking down at the sheet of paper in front of him. "You're early in returning from your mission, aren't you?"

"Of course not, I just made really good time coming back." Sakura replies with a smile. "The mission was a success and I just really wanted to see familiar surroundings again, that's all."

"We never doubted you." The other guard comments, with a small snort. "Tsunade was smart to send you, haven't heard about you not completing a mission in quite a while now, eh?"

"When she actually lets me go on a mission, instead of patching up bruises and cuts at the hospital." Sakura replies, anxious to be off again.

"Right!" they reply in unison, waving her on.

"Arigato!" She calls out, taking off through the gates and towards the Hokage's office.

"So that's all, I have all of their hideouts marked on this map, and their numbers aren't too large that 2 cells per hideout should be more than enough to dispose of them."

"I trust your judgement, Sakura. I will send out the cells as soon as they are ready, no more than 48 hours from now." Tsunade replied, pulling out a couple of file folders from a box next to her chair, obviously personnel files on people she would want to send out.

"Will my cell be accompanying them?"

"Unfortunately no, the rest of your team is still recovering from their reconnaissance mission."

"WHAAAT?"

"Calm down, they are both at home. Naruto was discharged a couple of days ago but Sasuke barely spent an hour in the hospital before he escaped. He has locked himself in his apartment and refuses to let anyone in to check on him. Even Naruto has tried breaking down the door but it refuses to budge." Tsunade replies, pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers. Obviously this has been annoying her for some time now.

"Well I'm going to go check on him as soon as you let me go." Sakura replies, bending over to pick up her bag from the desk. "I'm sure he'll let me in and if not…" she grins, flexing one hand into a fist. "I'll let myself in!"

"That's why I told you!"

o.o.o

After a quick stop at her apartment for a change of clothing (boy was is nice to get into familiar clothing, other than the civilian clothing she had been wearing for the past few weeks) and to grab her medical bag (because she was sure he still needed some sort of treatment), she took off across the rooftops towards the opposite side of the village where her dark haired team mate lived.

As she neared, she quickly went over what she was going to do in case he wouldn't let her in.

_I could always throw something through a window and jump in after it. He may not like me intruding, but someone has to take a look at him. Tsunade said that they were both injured, and if Naruto had to spend some time in the hospital, Sasuke must be worse off._

Not wanting to dwell on the details of just exactly how much worse off he could be, she quickened her pace and soon she was standing in front of his door.

Knock Knock Knock

"Sasuke? Are you in there?" she calls out, hoping he would just let her in so she wouldn't have to barge in unwelcome.

Knock Knock

"Sasuke? It's Sakura. Would you let me in? I just want to make sure you're alright."

Becoming worried at his lack of response, she leans in and tried to listen for any kind of movement on the other side of the door. She hears silent footsteps coming closer, but she frowns at hearing their unevenness, it almost sounded like he was limping.

"Sasuke, you have 5 seconds to open this door or I'm going to break it open."

Listening again, she hears the footsteps move closer until, to her horror, they stop all of a sudden and are followed by a small thud.

"Sasuke?"

Not wanting to wait anymore, she tries the door handle and surprisingly finds it unlocked. She turns the handle and pushes the door open, only to see her dark haired team mate on one knee on the floor, only wearing a dark blue pair of pyjama pants and his stomach covered in obviously old and handmade bandages. He has his head down but she can see by the rise and fall of his shoulders that he is panting with pain and even his breathing was uneven.

"Sa… Saku.. Ra?" he gasps. "Help… me…"

"Sasuke!" she cries, rushing to his side. She grabs his shoulders and tries to give him some support as she tries to analyze what was wrong. "Why aren't you in the hospital? You need medical attention!"

"I didn't… think I needed… it." he replies weakly. "I've had… worse."

"Well you need to try and stand up, you've got to get to the couch so I can help you." she replies, fighting back the urge to cry. "I'll try and help you walk, just lean on me."

"Ok."

Pressing his hand into her shoulder, he heaves himself up to his feet and she sees that he apparently had tried to bandage his wounds himself and had not been able to properly treat them first. From what she could see, they still continued to bleed and the slightly greenish hue to the skin surrounding the bandages told her that at least some of them had become infected. She had to heal him and fast.

"Can you make it to the couch?" she asks, wrapping her arm around his waist as he grips her far shoulder and leans into her support. Taking a small step forward, he follows her lead and moves forward as well.

"I think so…"

Slowly they move towards the couch as she keeps her eyes on their feet, trying not to look directly at him. Ever since he had returned, she had been feeling unsettled around him. He still had never commented on her confession from the night he left the village, but he had been a lot more comfortable around her then she was accustomed to. But now, seeing him injured like this was like a kunai to the heart.

They reach the couch and she helps him to lay down across the cushions. Finally gaining the courage to look at his face, she turns towards him and is once again shocked to see the lines of pain etched across his face, the darkness in his eyes and the dark circles on his cheeks that told her that he had not been sleeping well due to his injuries. His eyes meet hers and he gives her the same look that many patients at the hospital give her when in large amounts of pain, one that practically begs for relief.

"Why did you run away from the hospital?" She asks, desperation seeping into her voice. "Why didn't you let them at least make sure that you would be ok?"

"I hate being… in there." he replies, closing his eyes and laying his head down on the arm of the couch. "It makes… me feel weak."

"Well you're only human, and humans can get hurt, no matter how strong or weak they are!" she cries, moving her gaze to the mess of fabric wrapped around his ribs and stomach. Pulling a pair of scissors out of her bag, she cuts them off to reveal the mess of cuts and bruises hidden beneath. Using the old bandages to wipe off the remaining blood, she tries to assess what she would need to heal first.

"Sasuke, I've got to try and see if you have any underlying injuries that are keeping these cuts from healing." she tells him, placing a clean cloth on top of the cuts and concentrating her healing chakra in her hands, causing them to glow a healthy green. "Try to not move as much as you can."

Moving her chakra filled hands above his chest, she sinks her awareness into his aura. Looking at him like this made it easy to see the flow of his chakra beneath his skin as well as the flows of blood from his heart, two systems that were intimately intertwined. Everything in his chakra flow looked fine, but she sees that his blood flow was faster than normal, like his blood was thinner than usual.

She quickly pulls her awareness back into herself and opens her eyes. Pulling a small vial from her bag, she cuts a small, blood soaked portion of the old bandages and lets it fall into the vial and the clear liquid that she kept sealed in there. Placing the lid back on, she then shakes the vial allowing the liquid to dissolve the blood from the bandage. Then, as if by magic, the clear liquid suddenly turns blue and she gasps quietly to herself.

"Sasuke, you've been poisoned!" she cries, looking back towards his face, waving the vial in front of him. He opens his eyes and focuses on the small vial.

"You could tell… from that?"

"Yes, some of the villagers from the places the nomads have attacked have shown the same symptoms as you and Tsunade made this mixture that shows if a person has been infected when mixed with the patient's blood." she says, turning towards her bag again and digging through it. "You need an immediate blood transfusion with healing chakra to eliminate it."

"So what are you… going to do then?"

"I'm giving you the transfusion myself."

"What?"

She turns back towards him with a long section of tubing in her hands, one with two IV needles, one in each end, and a small plastic contraption hooked onto the middle.

"I'm going to give you the transfusion myself." she repeats, pulling out a small bottle of alcohol and a couple of cotton swabs. "This works best if the blood comes directly from someone with the same blood type and the donator is a medic, because I can charge my blood with the healing chakra that is required. And you've made it clear to me that you don't want to go to the hospital."

"Hn… but are you sure?" he protests, watching her pull off her jacket, revealing just a plain white tank top and start sanitizing a large patch on her forearm.

"Of course I'm sure, I've watched Tsunade do this with the other medics a bunch of times before I left." she replies. Without hesitating, she takes one end of the tube and pierces the skin of her arm, causing a bright red river to flow down the tube to the plastic clamp, but the blood was glowing with chakra. She grabs a roll of tape and places a strip across the needle to keep it attached as she grabs his arm and starts sanitizing a similar patch on his.

"Hn." he replies, closing his eyes again, not really wanting to watch.

Pulling the footstool that was behind her over towards the side of the couch, she sits down and takes the other end of the tube and inserts it into his arm. Because of the design of the tube, his blood doesn't flow into the other end, and she releases the clamp, letting her blood flow down the length of the tube and enter his arm. Taking the roll of tape, she tapes down the needle in his arm and sets his arm back on the couch next to him. She then sits back and concentrates on keeping her blood charged with chakra. The only sounds for quite a while is their breathing, hers quiet and steady, his ragged and weak.

"Sakura."

"Yes Sasuke-kun?"

"Why are you doing this?"

Turning her gaze from the tube connecting them, she meets his eyes with her own, emerald green to onyx.

"Because you're my friend… and that's what friends do, right?"

"Hn."

"What I want to know is why you locked yourself in here and didn't even let Naruto in." she continues, looking worried. "Were you still afraid of looking weak?"

"I wanted you to find me…"

"Wha… what?" she stutters.

"If anyone has to play doctor to me, I'd prefer it to be you." he replies, his voice sounding stronger. "You don't try and throw yourself at me when I'm knocked out."

She blushes furiously at that comment. "Well, I know it makes you uncomfortable." she replies, trying to cover up her embarrassment. "Besides, we're team mates, wouldn't it be awkward if we were, you know, together?"

"No."

The word hung in the air between them. Sakura continues to blush and Sasuke continues to lay on the couch, but he shifts his gaze from her face to the ceiling above him.

Thoughts start racing through her mind. _What did he mean by that? Is he joking? Or is it just a side effect from the blood transfusion? Or maybe… maybe he really means it._

"Sasuke, did you mean that?"

He closes his eyes and tries to reason with his own mind. _Why DID I say that? She is a valued team mate and a good friend, but am I satisfied with that? No, she means so much more to me than that. She deserves to know the truth._

"Yes."

Stunned silence.

"Sakura," Sasuke begins, turning her head towards her once more and taking a deep breath, "Ever since I returned you have been kind to me, accepted me back into the fold of team 7 as if nothing ever happened, and you have proven yourself to be a valuable team mate and friend to me. I am grateful that you have remained by my side after all these years, despite the mistakes I have made and the pain I have caused, and I am proud to call you my closest friend. So no, I don't think that if we were to become any closer would it sacrifice anything we already have."

Sakura was shocked, this was probably one of the longest speeches she had ever heard come from Sasuke. Naruto yes, he was famous for belting out his heart at the top of his lungs whenever he felt like it, but Sasuke was infinitely more guarded and less vocal about his feelings.

Glancing at her watch, she sees that she has just about given him enough blood to counteract the poison. Avoiding eye contact, she slips off of the footstool and moves back towards his stomach, removing the cloth covering his wounds. To her satisfaction, most of them had already begun to heal on their own, from the healing chakra that was in the blood she was giving him.

"Much better." she mumbles to herself, still trying to avoid the current topic of conversation.

"Sakura…"

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"You haven't given me a reply."

She gulps, and turns towards him, still blushing, she looks meets his eyes with her own.

"I… I didn't know you… felt that way about… me." she stammers, suddenly speechless. "I thought you… just put up with me… because you had to."

"That is not true at all, Sakura." he replies, shaking his head.

"Well, then why haven't you said anything before this?" she asks, pulling a clean roll of bandages from her bag and starting to re-wrap his stomach with gentle fingers.

"I thought you knew."

She finishes bandaging and then turns to the tube still connecting them. She first closes the clamp, stopping the flow of blood, and then removes the needle from his arm first, quickly covering the puncture with a square of bandage before removing the needle from her own arm. He sees that she is struggling to clean herself up with just one hand, he reaches over and places another square of bandage on her arm and secures it.

"Thanks." she replies.

"You're welcome."

It was then that she realized that he had not let go of her arm.

"Sakura, what do you say? Can you see yourself being with someone like me? As more than a friend?"

She looks at him and he smiles at her. Letting out a small giggle, she raises her other hand to place on his chest.

"Oh Sasuke-kun, of course I can. I just can't believe that this is what you want." she says, smiling back at him. "It just seems to unreal."

"Let me show you just how real I want it to be." he whispers, pulling on her arm. He lifts his head from the arm of the couch to catch her lips in a kiss.

Shocked at the sudden contact, Sakura's eyes widen, before she closes them and melts into the kiss, moving her lips against his. He wraps his free hand around the back of her head and weaves his fingers into her soft hair, pulling her face closer to his as she slides closer to him on the floor.

Minutes pass and they finally break apart, gasping for air. Her cheeks are still bright pink and even his have a slight flush to them.

"Would you stay with me for a while, Sakura?" he asks, sitting up on the couch to make room for her behind him. "I still really don't feel all that well." he adds, still grimacing with pain.

"Of course." she promises, picking herself up from the floor and sitting down on the couch with her back resting against the arm and her legs down either side of his torso. He leans back and rests his head on her shoulder against the back of the couch. She wraps her arms around his chest and lays her hands flat gently on top of the bandages on his stomach. "Just let me know if anything hurts."

"Mmm…" he agrees, closing his eyes and relaxing into the embrace, finally feeling enough relief that he may even be able to get some sleep, right here.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Get some rest, I'm not going anywhere."

"Mm."

o.o.o

Hours later, when Naruto finally heard from Tsunade that Sakura had returned and had promised to go look in on Sasuke, he arrives at his team mate's door expecting to see it sitting in a pile of debris on the floor. But, to his surprise, the door is intact and is even open a crack.

"Sasuke-teme, I'm coming in. You better have not chased Sakura-chan off, she was only trying… to… help?"

He walks through the door to see his two team mates curled up on the couch together, sound asleep, with Sakura's arms wrapped around Sasuke and a small smile on both of their faces.

"Hrmph…" he grunts, crossing his arms across his chest. "Well, at least he's ok."

Turning back towards the door, he hears Sasuke mumble in his sleep.

"Love you… Sakura."

Grinning, he leaves the two asleep on the couch and closes the door behind him. Ooh, was he going to make fun of them when they woke up!

o.o.o

FIN

Please Review! I love Reviews!


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